Mold-candle machine



B. D. SANDERS.

Candle Mold.

No. 16,754. Patented March 3. 1857@ e c c M PETERS. Pholol lhugrapher. wuhm tm 0.4-.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN D. SANDERS, OF HOLLIDAYS COVE, VIRGINIA.

MOLD-CANDLE MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent 1\To.- 16,754, dated March 3, 1857.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN D. SAN DEBS, of Hollidays Cove, county of Brook, and State of Virginia, have invented a certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Stearin and other Mold Candles, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, which forms part of this specification, and in which Figure 1 represents a plan of my improved apparatus in part, in an operative state; Fig. 2 a vertical section of the same; and Fig. 3 a diagram or vertical section in part in illustration of the centering of thewick in the mold.

My improvement has for its object the manufacture of stearin and other mold candles with greater celerity, convenience, retention at the proper stretch and exactness as regards central position of the wick in the mold, and improves the candle made.

I take a tub or circular water vessel (A), closed, say, top and bottom, and insert upwardly through it in a water tight manner, in circular or straight rows, molds (a, 2),), the tips of the molds being below the tub or in its bottom, and the open tops of the molds being flush, or thereabout, with and situated within a circular channel (0) sunk in the top face of the tub. A lid (03) may be provided the top face ofthe tub, for the admission of ice and water into the tub, and a top (8) be furnished the tub near its bottom for drawing off the heated or whole body of water from the tub; or the cool or iced water may be difierently admitted and the water as it heats, during the process of manufacture, be otherwise drawn off. Refrigerators or water vessels for the same purpose, and having the molds arranged within and up through them, are old devices, and the same is covered by the patent granted to I. Gamble and I. S. Hill Dec. 30, 1841. Great advantages are obtained, especially in the manufacture of stearin candles, by having the molds thus exposed to a cool ing medium during the manufacture of the candle, which advantages it is not necessary here to specify. But the refrigerators heretofore used for this purpose have been of a square or parallelogramie form, which is more expensive to construct than the tub form, cannot well be so perfectly hooped or kept water tight, and, as will be shown in after description, does not present the same convenience for the general and special operation of other parts of the apparatus as here constructed, or for the work to be done. Around the tub at its top, I erect, or have attached, a circular flange (B) which serves as a table and should be at a suitable height to constitute a working bench or table in the well known acceptation of the term. On and around this table, a series of guide strips (6) are arranged in pairs so as to admit of the free play, or radial movement in relation to the tub, of slides (C), between them. a To prevent unnecessary complication only a few of these slides thus arranged are shown in the drawing, but it will be readily seen that the whole table face may be closely packed with them all around. These slides (C) have notches (f) in them, so arranged that a notch comes over the center of each mold (a, 7),), on the slides being pushed to the required extent inward, which is the position of one of the slides (the central one) in Fig. 1. and of the slide shown in Fig. 3, of the drawing. Each slide (C) may be formed of notched bars to suit either a single row of molds or two ormore rows of molds within the range of the slide, as shown at opposite sides of the table (B) in Figs. 1 and 2. The molds (a, 6,) have the wicks supplied up through them from continuous rolls of wick wound on reels (9) that may here be conveniently arranged under the circular table.

The making of a series of candles on rolls of wick unwound from fixed reels and passed up through the molds being well known to the trade no special reference need here be made to this feature.

To illustrate the action of say a single slide (0) first thread the molds with the lines of wick from the reels and hold or secure the top ends of the wicks on the table (B), passing the wicks within the notches (f) and backwardly over the notched bars of the slide. Then move the slide (C) inward till its notches (f) arrive over the centers of the molds, which position the practiced eye of one skilled in the art may readily determine or, as is obvious, the slide may have stops or marks to limit its stroke, when the wicks will be both centered, held and stretched by the action of the slide, and the molds may be filled by pouring the melted fat, or whatever the material may be, into the circular channel (0).

When the candles are cold in the molds,

the slides (G) should be drawn back or outward, and the candles, by the wicks protruding above, lifted out of the molds and laid carelessly backward over the slide on the table or over it, in doing which a fresh supply of wick to the molds will be unwound from the reels as in other continuous wick arrangements. The circular trough (0) being cleared of remaining grease, the slide (C) is then pushed inwardly again, from the position in which it is represented on the left hand side of Fig. 2 to the position shown in Fig. 3,, during and by which operation, itwill be seen, not only are the wicks centeredin the molds by the slide (C) but eflectually stretched in the centering of them and held to their places by the notched edge or edges of the slide, in being forced inward, bearing against the wick that is held by the reel at one end and, bending backwardly over the slide above, is kept taut by the notched edge of the slide and by the drawn candle suspended in the rear of the notched edge of the slide. And here a wide distinction should be drawn between this and the candle making arrangement de scribed in the patent of H. Camp, Jany. 22, 1850, in which the drawn candle is made to center the wick in the mold for a succeeding candle by laying the drawn candle nicely over within recesses and making it butt up against a strip in the rear; as, in Camps arrangement, the drawn candle alone is made to center the wick and hold the wick at the center, which is not the case here; the greatest particularity too is requisite, in Camps mode, to lay down the candle in its proper place, that occupies much time and which my arrangement does not require, but, by it, the candle when made and drawn out of the mold may be hurriedly thrown down on the table anywhere in rear of the slide, or offthe table even. In Camps arrangement, also, the wick is not so securely held when centered, and, as the candles vary in length, or in laying the drawn candle down, the end of the candle gets crushed against the back retaining strip, there is no certainty as to the drawn candle properly centering the wick in the mold, and, in drawing the candle out of the mold, great particularity is requisite so that the candle be not drawn out too far, otherwise too much wick will have been unreeled and, in laying the drawn candle down in its set place to center the mold, the wick will hang loose and out of center in the mold, which then can only be rectified by taking up wick on the reel again that consumes a vast amount of time and, in practice, giving no positive certainty.

The arrangement here described economizes all this waste of time, involves no particularity in drawing the candle out of the mold, or laying it down when drawn, care only being requisite to pull or throw the candle back, when the slide, in being pushed up to center the wick in the mold, will stretch the wick effectually, without, of necessity, afterward taking up surplus wick by the reel, and the centered wick will be held by the slide biting in the bend or angle formed by the wick turned over it, in conjunction with the weight of the candle held more or less in suspension on or to the wick; all of which is clearly represented in Fig. 3 of the drawing.

To facilitate the clearing of the trough (c) of remaining grease upon the cooling of the candles in the molds, the wick protruding above the molds may be cut so as to leave a loose short end only of wick projecting above each candle sufficiently long, after the trough is cleared of superfluous grease, for the operator to take hold of to withdraw the candles from the molds and pass them back over the slide to effect the fresh supply of wick to the molds and by the aid of the drawn candles in conjunction wit-h the action of the centering slide to stretch and hold the wick to its place in the molds for a repetition of the molding process as described.

A distinction also should here be drawn between this arrangement and that described in J. H. Tucks patent of July 11th, 1837, in which the candles are withdrawn and held vertically in a continuous series on a line of wick, and a horizontal sliding shutter notched at its edges, acting in concertwith a sliding grooved wick director, are used to center and guide the wick merely, without having any tendency to stretch or hold it.

Apart from the centering, stretching and holding the wick in the rapid manner before described for this arrangement and mode of operation, the whole process is greatly facilitated and a larger number of candles can be produced within a given time, by the special arrangement here shown of the circular table (B) surrounding the refrigerator containing the molds and carrying on its top the centering, stretching and holding slides (C) in radial directions to the tub, as one, two or more operators, moving or leaning around the table, can attend in rapid succession to a number of slides; filling or pouring in the grease at different points if desired may be done without any material detention; the several slides drawn back and the candles popped and removed and the trough or troughs cleared without any serious delay; room also is economized, as well as time and labor; and the circular position of the refrigerator, carrying the molds, relatively to the working bench or table surrounding it, and the radial arrangement of the slides on the table, forms generally a more efficient combination than has ever before been known pended to it in rear of the notched edge 0f 10 or used for making mold candles. the slide, essentially as set forth.

What I claim as new and useful herein, In testimony whereof, I have hereunto and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is subscribed my name.

Causing the wick centering slide (C) to stretch and hold the wick in the mold, by 1 its operation on the wick when bent over WVitnesses: the slide and said bent portion of the Wick I JOHN S. HOLLINGSHEAD,

B. D. SANDERS.

having the drawn candle attached or sus- A. GREGORY. 

